Vivendi profit down but no break up

Vivendi has reported a 17 per cent slip in net income to €1.5 billion compared with the same period last year, mainly on a reduced contribution from SFR which is locked in an MNO price war.

The group said it would not split its media and telco assets because of the problems it would cause in apportioning €14 billion of debt and the need to protect bondholders.

The future of the French company – owner of assets ranging from Activision Blizzard, the video games maker, to Universal Music Group and SFR, the telecoms operator – has been the subject of fevered speculation after it launched a structural review and said a break-up or the selling of assets was not “taboo”.

But Philippe Capron, the company’s finance director, said that a “straight break-up” between its telecoms and media businesses was “not something that we can contemplate for the time being”.